Mm 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 






^f^. 






W: ^""^^ -^'v ..\° ^^-^^ /^* ^ 






C°\' 










vO' 







^' O 



.0* ^ - 




\- .. -*- '""^^^ 

> ft • • - ^^\ ^» 






• ^^ 



'P il'^% °v 




'♦" ^^^"^^^^ '^-'^ 






>°-^^. 



« ^ 






^0 











.0' 



0^ 












o V 











0' 



y . ^^^ " J" ... -^o .(^ .0"^, 





5)p 



■f^:i 



O^t/t 



//^ 



A Brief Hi^ory of Isle of Wight 
County, Virginia 

Colnpiled for Distribution at the Jamestown 
Tercentenary Exposition. 



nN THE early spring of 1608, Captain John 
Smith, driven by the necessity of obtaining^^^ 
food' for the famisliing colonists at ['James- 
town, crossed the river (James), and obtained from 
a tribe of Indians called Worrosquoyackes fourteen 
bushels of corn. This transaction was the dawn of 
';he Instory of Isle of Wight county, as well,' almost, 
s that of America. Again, in December \ of this 
ame year. Captain Smith, while on his I way to 
/isit Powhatan, who was then on the York River, 
!pent h-s first night with this same tribe of Indians. 
A.nd in the spring of 1611, after that terrible winter, 
n which five hundred of the colonists died of star- 
/ation and disease, that sad-hearted remnant of sixty 
emaciated, half-famished men, who had determined 
:o abandon the colony, also spent their first night 
vith this same tribe. 

This tribe of Indians occupied a village near 
vhat is now known as Fergusson's Wharf, |in this 
;ounty, and their hunting grounds extended along 
he James River about five miles and inland about 
wenty, and had a fighting strength of forty or fifty 
rarriors. 

Captain Smith records that the king of this tribe 
'urnished him with two guides, with whom he sent 
I valiant soldier, named Sicklemore, to explore the 
1 country around Roanoke Island for traces of the 
,[ ^lost colony" of Sir Walter Raleigh, with no suc- 
1 ^essful result ; and that he, the king of this tribe, 
1 varned him against the treachery of Powhatan ; 
y md yet, this same savage, in a very few years, tried, 
jind nearly succeeded, in killing every colonist on 
/he south side of James River. 



J A lililEF HIHTORY OF 

in the western part of the county, now Soutb- 
aiiipton comity, there was another tribe, called the 
Noitoways. who were identified with our earliest 
history. They were intimately connected with the 
white settlers, and for more than one hundred years 
lived on their own lands, bartered tlu' ])roducts of 
their hunting and fishing with the white people 
for guns, bhinkets, etc., sold to them their lands, and, 
except for their fondness for rum, seem to have 
been a peaceful and well disposed people, more 
sinned against than sinning. For in 1752 the Gen- 
eral Af-scinhiy of Virginia passed an act declaring 
"that if any person or persons shall hereafter, under 
any pretense whatever, take from the Indians any 
of their i^uiis, blankets or other apparel, such persons 
so ofTeiiding shall pa}' to the Indian or Indians so 
injured ihc sum of twenty shillings for every such 
oifense ; and if the ofl'ender be a slave, he shall 
receive, for such olt'ense, on his or her naked back, 
twenty-five lashes, well laid on." But generally the. 
Indians wore treated with the greatest kindness until! 
the time of the great Indian massacre, in 1623, for ^ 
the col(i!ii-;ts were thoroughly imbued with the idea 
of converting them to Christianity. 

The first English settlement in Isle of Wight 
county was made by Captain Christopher Lawne and 
Sir Richnid Worsley, knight baronet, and their as-jfi 
sociates, viz.: Xatliaiiiel Basse, gentleman; John 
Hobson, gentleman; Anthony Olevan, Richard Wise- 
nuin, Robert Xewland, Robert Gyner and William 
Willis. 

On April 27, 1619, they arrived at Jamestown, 
with one hundred settlers, in a ship commanded by 
Captain Evans. They immediately settled near the 
mouth of a creek on the south side of the James 
River, still known as Lawne's Creek (sometimes im- 1 
])roperly written Lyon's Creek), which wao, in 1642 J 
made the dividing line between this county and 
Surry county. 

Captain I^awne and Ensign Washer represented thcf 
settlement known as Lawne's Plantations in the 
first House of Burgesses, which met at Jan\estovvn on^ 
the ;]Oth d;iv (d" .lulv. Kil!). 



I' 



I8LE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 5 

It seems to be a fact that all new settlements are 
.nhealthy, and this proved to be remarkably soj 
or within abont a year Captain Lawne died, and 
our-fifths of those he brought with 'him also, and 
he London Company, JvTovember 30, 1620, ordered 
hat : "In regard of the late mortality of the persons 
ransported heretofore by the late Captain Lawne, 
lis associates be granted till midsummer, 1625, to 
nake up the number of persons they were disposed 
bring." It also declared that the plantation was 
o be henceforth called Isle of Wight Plantation, for 
vhich change of name we are very thankful, on ac- 
;oimt of the difficulty of spelling and pronouncing 
ts former name, which it took from the tribe of 
iVarrosquoyacke Indians. We find this name spelled 
.n every conceivable way, some of them being War- 
:-osquyoke, Warrosqueak, Warrasquoyke ; nevertiie- ' 
:ess, it was several years before the new name of Isle 
3f Wight was in general use among the colonists. 
This name was given it, very probably because the 
famous "Isle of Wight" off the coast of England 
bad been the home of some of the principal patentees ; 
at least, one of them was certainly from Isle of 
Wight — Sir Eichard Worsley, who came over in 1608. 
Many of the early settlers were of cavalier origin, 
and came from the city of Bristol, England, and its 
vicinity, and for many years, as shown by the old 
records, the "Bristol ships" made frequent trading 
voyages to this county, bringing with them, at every 
trip, batches of emigrants. 

On ISTovember 21, 1621, Edward Bennett, a rich 
merchant of London, was granted a patent for a 
plantation upon the condition of settling two hun- 
dred emigrants. Associated with him in that patent 
were his brother, Kobert Bennett, and his nephew, 
Eichard Bennett, Thomas Ayres, Thomas Wiseman 
and Eichard Wiseman; and in February, 1622, the 
"Sea Flower" arrived with one hundred and twenty 
settlers, under command of Captain Ealph Hamor, 
one of the Council. Among them were Eev. William 
Bennett and George Harrison, kinsmen of Edward 
Beniiett. Their place of settlement was called War- 
rosquovacke. or sometimes "Edward Bennett's Plan- 



6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF 

tation," and was located at the place on James River 
known as the*"Rocks," the estate of the late Dr. Johi 
W. Lawson, who for many years represented tlr 
county in the General Assembly of the State, the 
Second Congressional ])istrict in Congress, and thifj 
county in the late Constitutional Convention. 

On the day the patent last mentioned was granted, 
Arthur Swaine, Captain Nathaniel Basse and others, 
undertook to establish another plantation in the same\ 
neighborhood. Captain Basse came over in person, 
and his plantation was known as "Basse's Choice." ' 
and was situated on Warrosquoyacke (now Pagan i 
River. 11 

The houses of Captain Basse's Plantation were" 
building when a great calamity happened to the in- 
fant colony. At midday on Good Friday, March 22, 
1622, there were twelve hundred and forty inhabi- 
tants in the State of Virginia. Of these, tliree hun- 
dred and forty-seven, in a few hours, were killed by 
the Indians in the eiglity settlements on the north 
and south sides of the James River, of which number 
fifty-three were residents of this county. |! 

After the death of Powhatan, his brother, Opecan- ' 
canough, who always hated the whites, joined all jj 
the tribes in Eastern Virginia into an oath-bound 1 
conspiracy to kill the whites, and we are astonished ' 
with what concert of action and secrecy this great 
jjlot was arranged when we reflect that the savages 
were not living together as one nation, but were dis- 
persed in little hamlets, containing from thirty to 
two hundred in a company. "Yet they all had warn- 
ing given them, one from another, in all their habi- 
tations, tliough far asunder, to meet at this day 
and hour for the destruction of the English." 

So well was the dread secret kept that the Eng- 
lish l)oats were borrowed to transport the Indiuna 
over tlic river to consult on the "devilish murder that 
ensued": jiiid < ven on the day itself, as well as on 
the evening before, they came as usual, unarmed, into 
their settlements, with their turkeys and other pro- 
vision< to srlj : and in some places sat down with 
till' I-'jiglisli on the very niorniiiL:' to bi-cakfasl. 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 9 

The}^ spared no age, sex or condition; and were so 
.>udden in their indiscriminate slaughter that few 
could discern the blow or the weapon that killed 
them. 

Those who had treated them with especial kindness 
and conferred many benefits upon them fared no 
better than the rest. The ties of love and gratitude 
the sacred rights of hospitality and reciprocal friend- 
ship, oath, pledges and promises were broken or 
forgotten in obedience to the commands of their chief 
for the execution of a great, but diabolical, stroke 
of State policy. 

With one, and only one, of all who had been* 
cherished by the whites did gratitude for their kind- 
ness and fidelity to his new religion prevail over his 
allegiance to his king and affection for his people. A 
converted Indian, who resided with a Mr. Pace, and 
who was treated by him as a son, revealed the plot 
to him in the night of the 21st. Mr. Pace im- 
mediately secured his house and rowed himself up 
to Jamestown, where he disclosed the inhuman plot 
to the Grovernor, by wliich means that place and 
all the neighboring plantations, to which intelligence 
could be conveyed, were saved from destruction; foi 
the cowardly Indians, wherever they saw the whites 
ujjon their guard, immediately retreated. Some 
other places were also preserved by the undaunted 
courage of the occupants, who never failed to beat 
off their assailants, if they were not slain before their 
suspicions were excited. By these means the larger 
portion of the colony was saved from total annihila- 
tion in a single hour by this well conceived, well 
concealed and well executed plot of those inhuman, 
but weak and simple, adversaries. 

Some miraculous escapes are reported in the Wor- 
rosquoyacke settlement. The Indians came to one 
Baldwin^s house, wounded his wife ; but Baldwin, by 
repeated tiring of his gun, so frightened them as to 
"save both her, his house, himself and divers others." 
About the same time they appeared at the house 
of Mr. Harrison, half a mile from Baldwin's, where 
was staying Thomas Hamor, a brother of Captain 



10 A UlilEF HIt<TOh'y OF |l 

RhI1)1i llamor, who also lived iioarby. The Indiaiii \ 
sent a message to Captain Ilanior that their kinglj 
was hunting in the neighborhood, and had invited 
him to join them. The captain, not coming as they 
expected him to do, they set tire to a tobacco ware- 
house and murdered the whites as they rushed out 
of Harrison's house to quench tiie fire. ^lany were 
killfd. but Tiiomas Hamor was saved by a chance 
delay. He remained to finish a letter which he was 
engaged in writing. When he went out he saw the 
commotion, and although he received an arrow in his 
back, with twenty-two others he fought his way 
back to the house, wliicli. being set on fire by the 
Indians, he left to burn, and fled to Baldwin's. In 
the meantime Captain Ralph Hamor was in utmost 
peril. Going out to meet the king, he saw some of 
the wretches murdering the unarmed whites. lie 
returned to his new house, where, armed with only 
spades, axes and brickbats, he and his company de- 
fended themselves till the Indians gave up the siege 
and departed. At the house of Captain Basse, in 
the same neighborhood, everybody was slain. Basse, 
who was in England at the time, of course, escaped. 

The consternation produced by this horrid massa- 
cre caused the adoption of a ruinous policy. Instead 
of marching at once bold to meet and drive the 
Indians from the settlement, or reduce them to sul)- 
jection Ijy a l)loody retaliation, the colonists were 
huddled together from their eighty plantations into 
eight. Works of great public utility were abandoned 
am! cultivation confined to a space too limited merely 
for subsistence. These crowded quarters ])roduced 
sickness, and some were so disheartened that they 
sailed for ICngland. All Worrosquoyaeke, fi'om Hog 
Island down the river for fourteen miles, was aban- 
doned. 

But it was not the nature ol" the Anglo-Saxon man 
to be for long intimidated by fear of these weak, 
cowardly wretches, who had inllictecl upon them such 
a dastanlly outrage; for. in .Inly of the same vear, 
they commenced to move against ilicui. and in the 
ejirlv fall Sii- (JeoriT"' "^'eardlev conunanded an exite- 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 11 

iition against the savages down the river. He drove 
out the Worrosqiioyackes and Nansemonds, burned 
their houses and took their corn. On May 31, 1623, 
Captain Koger Smith was ordered to build a fort on 
the Worrosquoyacke shore, opposite to Tindall Shoals, 
where Captain Samuel Each had a blockhouse . in 
building. 

In the summer of 1623 Captain William Tucker, 
of Kecaughton (Hampton), commanded an expedi- 
tion against the Worrosquoyackes. He killed many, 
cut down their corn, and burnt their houses. And 
this state of fierce warfare continued to rage, with 
uninterrupted fury, until a peace was concluded in 
1632, under the administration of Governor Harvey. 

In the course of this warfare the Indians were not 
treated with the same tenderness which they had 
generally been before the massacre; but their habi- 
tations, cleared lands, pleasant sites, wlien once taken 
possession of, were generally retained by the victors, 
and the vanquished forced to take refuge in the 
woods or marshes. Truly, the founding of our na- 
tion was no mere holiday amusement. 

The proprietors of the abandoned settlements took 
heart, and were allowed to return. 

The census of 1623-24 (February) showed as then 
living at "Worwicke-Squeak" and "Basse's Choice" 
fifty-three persons, '^twenty-six having died since 
April last." 

Disease proved more disastrous than anything else. 
The census of 1624-25 showed but thirty-one persons 
alive at "Worrosquoyacke and Basse's Choice. 

Among those who had died were Mr. Eobert Ben- 
nett, the brother of Edward Bennett, the rich London 
merchant, and the first minister, Mr. William Ben- 
nett, doubtless one of the same family. 

At the census taken 1624-25, it is recorded that 
three hundred and forty-seven out of a population 
of twelve hundred and forty were murdered by the 
Indians in the massacre of 1622. 

From the beginning of 1626 the colony er^>^cB&'^ 
upon a more prosperous era, and from then on a 
continuous stream of emigrants were granted patents. 



12 A BRIEF HISTORY OF 

1 Hiring the lii^t hundivd years a grant of fifty 
acres was given for the inijiortation of every emi- 
grant. 'J'hc names of the ''Head-rights" were given 
in the patents. From the records in the Land Of- 
fiee, the following are snbserihed : ""Land Urania : 
^[artha Key, wife of Thomas Key, planter (as his 
l>orsonal dividend, being an ancient planter), one 
hundred and fifty acres lying on the easterly side 
of Worrosquoyacke River, opposite the land of Cap- 
tain Nathaniel Basse''; * * * Jolm ^loon, planter, 
two hundred acres in Worrosquoyaeke, on the Wor- 
rosquoyacke Creek, and northerly on a small creek 
called Vigoes Creek * * * for the transportation of 
four persons, viz. : himself, George Martin, Julian 
Hollier, Clement Thrush, who came in the Catherine, 
of London, 1G23. Granted March, 1623." 

A portion of this patent in ''Red Point" still bears 
the name of "Moonfield," and one of the descendants 
of this John Moon, himself named John Moon, be- 
came a very rich man, owning a large portion of 
the land in "Red Point." The name is now extinci 
in this county, and it is astonishing how few of the 
nanics of the very first settlers liave come down ro 
us in their descendants. 

It Would Itc rcinaikably interesting to continue 
to enumerate these old land grants, but time and 
space will not allow it. Only three others will be 
mentioned, because the original patentees and their 
descendants have been prominent in the political and 
military history of our county and State, and tln' 
United States. 

Benjamin Harrison was granted "two hundred 
and fifty acres in ^Yorrosquoyacke, on the main creek 
wliicji runneth from the Great River * * *."' 

John Upton was granted si.xteen hundred and 
fifty acres in this county about three miles up Pagan 
Creek, due for the importation of thirty-three per- 
sons. Granted July 7th, 1635. 

Cantain John Upton represented this county in 

-L. 'jse of Burgesses for many years, 
(leorge Hardy, three hundred acres on Lawnes 
(■fi'ek. "bordcriiiir on .Mice Bennett's land * * *." 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 13 

He was probably the first to erect a grist-mill, which 
became quite famous, locally; and is still in opera- 
tion and known as "Wrenn's Old Mill." 

From this family of Hardy was descended the 
Honorable Samuel Hardy, the first representative ' 
in the Continental Congress from this District. He 
was one of the most able men in the earliest sessions 
of National Congress. He died in Philadelphia, 
while a member of Congress, on the 17th day of 
October, 1785. 

On hearing of Hardy's death, Judge Tyler wrote 
the following beautiful tribute to his memory: 

"Ah, why, my soul, indulge this pensive mood? 
Hardy is dead, the brave, the just, the good. 
Careless of censure, on his youthful bier 
The muse shall drop a tributary tear. 
His patriot bosom glowed with warmth divine, 
And Oh, humanity! his heart was thine. 
No party interest led his heart astray; 
He chose a nobler, though a beaten way. 
Nor shall his virtues there remain unsung — 
Pride of the Senate, and their guide and tongue. 
That tongue, no more, can make even truth to please — 
Polite with art, and elegant with ease. 
Fain would the muse augment the plaintive strain, 
Tho' the most flattering panegyric vain, 
When the brief sentence, youthful Hardy's dead. 
Speaks more than poet ever thought or said!" 

His remains were laid to rest in Philadelphia 
where those of Tazewell, Innes, Mason, Read and 
other gallant and patriotic Yirginians still sleep. 

Mr. Hardy was considered, by his associates in 
Congress, and other able men who had the pleasure 
of his acquaintance, as being one of the most bril- 
liant men of his age. He, on occasions, displayed 
great poetic inclinations. ■ 

His memory has been preserved in this county by 
a most fitting and gracious act — the naming of one 
of the magisterial districts for him — Hardy Dis- 
trict. 

In the year 1631 the colony was divided into eight 
shires or counties, one of which was named Wor- 
rosquoyacke, afterwards Isle of Wight. 



14 A Bh'lKF in STORY OF 

The <iovc'rniiu'nt of those shires or counties was 
modeled iiixui that in En<,dand. Lieutenant Colonels 
were a|)i)ointed and tomnianded the troops in the 
wars with the Indians. Sheriffs, sergeants and 
bailill's were elected; and, mitil 1G91, every freeman 
was entitled to a vote, and indentured servants, at 
the expiration of their term of service, were allowed 
to do the same. In lG'i8-29 commissioners were ap- 
pointed and required to hold monthly meetings in 
the different shires or counties; hence, the origin of 
the county courts. 

The original boundaries of the county of Wor- 
rosquoyacke, or Isle of Wight, were: Northerly, by 
Lawnes Creek; Easterly, by James River as far as 
the plantation of Eichard Hayes, formerly John 
Howard's; the southern boundary by certain creeks 
to the head of Colonel Pitt's Creek (this proved 
somewhat uncertain) ; and westerly into the woods 
indefinitely. In 165G, upon the petition of the in- 
liabitants of Eagged Island and Terascoe Neck, then 
in Xansemond county, thoy were put into Isle of 
Wight. 

A long dispute arose between the counties of Isle 
of Wight and Xansemond, continuing until 1674, 
when, by an Act of the General Assembly (then 
called the House of Burgesses), the boundaries were 
established as they now are, viz. : "That a southwest 
by south line be designed, runned and plainly 
marked froni the river side of the plantation of 
Hayes, extending to the creek at or near the planta- 
tion called Xevill Oyster Bank; thence a line or 
lines up Col. Pitt's creek to the head of his lands; 
thence in a southwest half a point westerly line 

The county is thirty-seven miles in length and an 
average breadth of eleven miles, with an area of 
about three hundred and fifty square miles. It ex- 
tends from 36° 38' to 37° 07' north latitude and 
from 0° 2' to 0° 36' longitude east from Washing- 
ton. The land dips to the northeast from a plateau 
a little west of Bethel Church, and from that same 
|tl;it<'au it dips to the nnrlliwcst and west; the former, 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 19 

by the County Commissioners; but were taken out 
of their control and managed directly by the whole 
ybody of the General Assembly, with much loss of 
time that should have been devoted to the business 
of the general public. After many years their con- 
trol was restored to the County Court and so con- 
tinued until 1750 when the ferries were abandoned 
and bridges were adopted. These bridges were con- 
structed by private parties and, for many years the 
owners were allowed to charge tolls. They were 
afterwards rented to the county, but tolls were 
charged to non-residents. Finally, in 1891, they 
were sold to the county and all tolls abolished. 

About 1750 the courthouse was moved to the town 
of Smithfield and three substantial brick buildings 
erected — the courthouse, clerk's office and jail, at 
the corner of Main and Pierce streets. In 1800, 
Major Francis Boykin, the grandfather of Judge E. 
E^^^^ykjn, of the Twenty-eighth Judicial Circuit of 
Tirginia, of which this county is a part, donated the 
land upon which the courthouse now stands to the 
Commonwealth and erected some of the first build- 
ings at his own expense. The public documents re- 
mained, for a short time, in a frame building, until 
recently a part of the old tavern, and afterwards 
placed in a brick building. This building not being- 
large enough was added in 1822 and has remained 
the clerk^s office till the present time, having a mod- 
ern fire-proof vault added in. 1892. 

The records of the county have passed through 
many vicissitudes. During the Eevolution Tarle- 
ton's British troopers made a raid on Smithfield 
with the intent to destroy the records, but they had 
been removed by the wife of the Deputy Clerk, Mr. 
_Francis Young, who was an officer in the army and 
was with his regiment, to a farm near Smithfield^ 
and there buried in a box and a "hair trunk," which 
trunk is still in possession of the Young family. To ' - 
this lady's foresight and patriotism America owes 
the credit of the preservation of some of its very ' 
oldest records. These old records remained buried ' 
till after the surrender at Yorktown. The "Graet 



2(1 • A BRIEF IIlSTOIiY OF 

Bi)(»k," now in the clerk's office and in its original 
binding, was badly damaged bv worms during the 
time it was buried, but for this, as well as other 
records buried with it, it is remarkably well pre- 
served, as, in fact, are all of the old records now in 
existence. The oldest recorded document is dated 
in 1029. 

During the Civil War (May. ISC^) tlu'y were re- 
moved, first to Greensville comny. ilien to Bruns- 
wick, aiul after the war brought back to the court- 
liouse, all being preserved; which is very astonisli- 
ing. Kandall Booth, one of the negroes of Mr. X. P. 
Young, the clerk at that time, told, with much pride. 
of how he had remained in the woods and on the 
road for days at the time, witli them. Any one who 
has visited the courthouse prior to throe years ago 
will remember Randall. He was one of the "old- 
timers" and remained faithful to his ""'White Mars- 
ter" till old age and failing health struck him down. 
From that time till his death his "White Marster's" 
people remained with him, ministering to his wants 
and necessities. This type of the ''Old Virginny 
Darkey" is almost a thing of the past. 

The jail, built in 1804, was torn down in 1902 ami 
a modern fire-proof structure was reared in its stead, 
of the most improved type. The courthouse was 
remodelled in 1903. The clerk's office has recently 
undergone many necessary repairs on the inside and 
an addition of a fire-proof vault, though the gen- 
oral e.xterior remains the same, from the front, as it 
was after being rebuilt in 1822. The old tavern, 
the residence of ^lajor Francis Boykin, built, so far 
as can be ascertained, in 1702, stood in almost its 
oiiijiiial condition until 1901, in which year it re- 
ceived extensive repairs ])y its ])resent owner, Mr. 
(). L. Batten. The (\\t.erior. however, is about the 
same as formerly. 

All of these buildings stand in a grove on an 
eminence of about ten or twelv(> feet above the road, 
fa<'ed bv a l)eantifnl nionnnient erected to the Con- 
federate dead in l!»o."), a beautiful ])iece of archi- 
tecture, reflectinij ^ri'at credit on the men and 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY. VIRGINIA 23 

women b}^ Avhose efforts it was erected as a memorial 
of their devotion to a canse lost yet loved. 

The court green has been the scene' of man}^ a stir- 
ring occurrence, political wrangles and the like, and 
the old tavern's walls have housed many a con- 
vivial assembly, and has been long famous for the 
many parties and balls which have been attended by 
throngs of "ye gentlemen and ladies." 

The clerks of the county have been as follows: 

Thomas Wombwell, 1645 to 1656. 
-John Jennings. 1656 to 1662. 
, John Broomfield, 1677 to 1679. 

John Pitt, 1679 to 1692. 

Hugh Davis, 1692. (Died in one month after 
entering office.) 

Charles Chapman, 1692 to 1710. 

Henry Lightfoot, 1710 to 1729. 

James Tngles, 1729 to 1732. 

James Baker, 1732 to 1754. 

Eichard Baker, 1754 to 1770. 

William Drew, 1770 to 1772. 

iS^'athaniel Burwell, 1772 to 1787. 

Francis Young (I), 1787 to 1794. 

James Young, 1794 to 1800. 

Francis Young (II), 1800 to 1801. 

Nathaniel Young, 1801 to 1841. 

Nathaniel Peyton Young, 1841 to 1869. 

Charles H. Hart, 1869 to 1870. (Appointed when 
Virginia was a military district.) 

Nathaniel Peyton Young, 1870 to 1896. (Second 
term. ) 

Nathaniel F. Young, 1896 to 1905. 

Albert S. Johnson, appointed in 1905 at the death 
of Mr. Nathaniel F. Young, was elected in same year 
and is the present clerk. 

It may thus be seen that the clerkship remained in 
the Young family for a period of one hundred and 
eighteen years. 

The county fronts northeasterly on James Kiver 
and extends along the river for about eighteen miles. 
Between its shore and the river channel there are 
many hundreds of acres of natural oyster rocks 
and oyster planting grounds rented out by the State. 



24 A BlilEF msroRY OF 

The streiuiip which make into the huid from the 
river are often bold and navigable streams. On the 
northeast Lawnes Creek forms the boundary, for 
about seven miles, between this county and' the 
county of Surry; is navigable for five miles for ves- 
sels drawing five feet of water, and out of it are car- 
ried large quantities of lumber, peanuts and other 
products. Pagan River penetrates it for five miles 
to Smithfield ; is navigable for vessels drawing ten 
feet of water, and out of it is carried large quanti- 
ties of peanuts, potatoes, bacon, melons, citron, and 
various trucks, in the cultivation of which many in 




Farmkks Dkmvkki.nh Pka.nlts. 



this neighborhood are engaged. At Smithfield the 
stream separates into two branches, one flowi.ng 
northwesterly, called Smithfield Creek, which ex- 
tends about four miles inland, navigable for small 
craft. At its head has been constructed a deep pond 
of most excellent water, from which the town of 
Smithfield is supplied. The other branch, flowing 
to the southeast, pcnci rates a rich and fertile truck- 
ing section for fonr miles and is called Cypress 
Creek, and fnrnislics facilities for heavy transpor- 
tation. On the south and west, Chuckatuck, Brew- 
ers. Jones and ^Sfilners Creeks are of sufficient depth 
to furnish t lanspdi'lat imi facililic's to large com- 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 25 

munities engaged in agriculture and oyster plant- 
ing. The Blackwater River forms its western 
boundary for about fifteen miles, separating it from 
the county of Southampton. This is a fresh water 
stream, navigable from Franklin, reaching the ocean 
through Chowan Eiver, in North Carolina and the 
Carolina sounds, and is crossed, in many places, by 
good and substantial bridges, conveniently located, 
and for many months in the year afford excellent 
fishing. This stream sends out innumerable branches, 
some of them of considerable size, such as Broad- 
water, Rattlesnake and Mill Swamps, which again 
break into numerous ravines, swamps and poquosins, 
which run far into the land and ramify into an in- 
terminable tangle, affording good ranges for hogs 
and cattle and an easy and quick way of defining the 
boundaries to tracts of land, for there is scarcely a 
farm in the description of whose metes and bounds 
the expression of "up the said swamp" or "down the 
said swamp" does not occur. This, however, is a 
very improper description, for, in fifty years, who 
can tell where the "main run of swamp" may be; 
and such descriptions may open the door for vexa- 
tious law suits; and, the swamps being held as com- 
mon property of two contiguous land owners, may 
prevent its being utilized in the making of ice ponds, 
fish ponds, cranberry patches, for which some are 
ideal locations, or converted into useful pastures; 
and furthermore, there is a time coming, perhaps, 
when the water of these ravines and swamps will be 
conserved to furnish the power for the generation of 
electricity to warm our houses, cook our food and to 
cultivate our fields, for the present waste of fer- 
tility, fuel and everything else on our farms, will 
present to a quadrupled population the solution of 
a very serious problem. These many streams and 
swamps enable the farmer to drain his arable lands 
conveniently and with nominal cost. 

The soil is a composition of the various sands, 
marls and clays of the Laurenthean formation, and 
being in the last Ocean Bench a good portion of it 
is alluvial and of remarkable fertility, where its nat- 



26 A BRIEF HISTORY OF 

ural fertility has not been destroyed by too fre- 
quent and unwise cultivation. 

There may be found every variety of soil, from stiff 
elays to light sandy; the former along James Kiver 
and its tributaries; the latter as you proceed west- 
ward. All of it is susceptible to improvement by 
intelligent cultivation, the use of commercial fer- 
tilizers used with soiling crops. There are many 
farms whose productiveness have been increased two- 
fold, and some four-fold, within ten years by the 
above means. 

The sands are most excellent in character for 
building purposes and can be found any and every- 
where, and when contiguous to railroads, have, in 
considerable quantities, been shipped to the cities 
for the making of concrete blocks, a most excellent 
building material. 

The elays can be found in very many places, of 
the very best kind for the manufacture of tile and 
brick, as shown by the stability of many old brick 
houses over a hundred years old in all parts of the 
county now standing whose bricks were made of clay 
found in their immediate vicinities, and that not 
manufactured in the best manner. 

The marls can be found everywhere throughout 
the county along its many swamps and ravines in 
inexhaustible quantities. The deposits of this val- 
uable mineral are of two kinds, red and blue, the 
former mixed with clay and often so rich in lime 
as to be nearly white, found in hundreds of places 
along the rivers, creeks and swamps, often forming 
great high hills of unlijnited quantities and easy to 
ol)tain. 

The blue marl can be found everywhere beyond 
tidewater in immense quantities. Although harder 
In obtain than the red variety, it has a greater fer- 
tilizing quality for land on account of the greater 
admixture of vegetable matter. It is, in fact, a 
semi-peat. A successful application of either of these 
marls work a wonderful change in the productive- 
ness of lllr l.'iml. 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 27 

The American Cement Company has recognized 
the value of the marls of the county and has pur- 
chased hundreds of acres of land upon which are 
deposits, and some day, not far distant, gangs of 
men, with steam shovels and other appliances, will 
be tearing down these hills and conveying them 
away to be calcined into hydraulic cement. 

The colonists of this county early commenced 
boat-building, to encourage which art the General 
Assembly enacted laws giving ^''rewards" of money 
to those persons who should build vessels of twenty 
tons burden and over. 

The object of the General Assembly was to render 
the people quickly and thoroughly independent of 
the mother country, whose navigation laws required 
at first ever5rthing to be shipped in British bot- 
toms or vessels owned by the shippers. That the 
colonists must have gone to work early at this busi- 
ness is evidenced by the following extracts from the 
old records: 

"In 1663 the General Assembly rewarded John 
Pitt, of Isle of Wight county, for building a vessel 
of twenty-three tons." In 1680 the appraisement 
of Col. Bridger's estate mentions a sloop that will 
carry twenty-eight hhds." "In 1686, Thomas God- 
win, by will, leaves to his wife three horses and her 
proportion of a sloop not yet appraised." And 
many other wills of like tenor are recorded, showing 
that many of the residents of this county owned 
their own vessels. 

After 1611, when Lord Delaware came up the 
river with three ships laden with farming imple- 
ments, horses, cows, hogs, and one thousand emi- 
grants, we hear no more of "starving times." He 
met the sixty desperate, famishing men who had 
abandoned Jamestown, in the morning moved down 
the river as far as Burwells Bay, spent the night 
there waiting for a change of tide to assist them in 
the propulsion of their heavy, unsafe boats. Thus 
the abandonment of the colony was fortuitously 
saved by the intervention of "two tides"; the flood 
which brought Lord Delaware as far as Newport 



28 .1 BRIEF HISTORY OF 

t 

Nt'ws and ioiiii)elled the di;>lioartc'ued colonists to 
stop at Warrosquoyacke (Burwclls) Bay. 

After tlu' i,n-('ai massacre, March 22nd, 1G22, the 
colonists iliil not remain more than nine months 
from their farms, and on their return took pos- 
session of all the open lands of the Indians, and, 
we can well ima«,Mne, went to work with a zest to 
retrieve their ruined fortunes. 

For one hundred years the principal crop was 
tobacco, which, at first, brought immense prices and 
was easily converted into money and other com- 
modities in England. But the increase in the use 
of tobacco did not keep pace with the production in 
the virgin soil of the State, and the price, ever 
lluctuating, continued to fall until far below the 
costs of production. This brought about a most dis- 
tressing state of affairs, entailing not only poverty, 
and, in many cases, ruin upon the planters, but as 
well upon all classes of society, and even almost 
blocking the machinery of government, for the sal- 
aries of the ministers, doctors, lawyers and clerks 
were paid in tobacco or its equivalent, and this was 
often hard to determine and the keeping of the ac- 
counts of the merchants and government officials, 
based on tobacco, was most uncertain, unsatisfac- 
tory and annoying. Many expedients were adopted 
at various times to limit the acreage in tobacco, the 
cultivation of "seconds" (suckers which came after 
the crop was cut) being prohibited and the adoption 
of a minimum price, etc. But they all failed, and 
this county early turned its attention to the culti- 
vatidii of other cr<)i)s. jiartly induced by the nature 
of the soil, which jiroducod tol)acco of an inferior 
grade only, and partly induced by its large water 
fi-ont. affording easy tritnsportation, enabling the 
iniiabitants to cultivate such bulky crops as corn 
and wheat. 

For the regulation of tlie tobacco trade warehouses 
were erected at prominent points in the county, 
iiotahle at Fergusson's Wharf, the Rocks, Ful- 
ghams (just across the river from Smitlifield), 
Tate's Field (now Battery Park). All the tobacco 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 29 

was required to be brought to these various ware- 
houses for inspection and weight and export duty, 
the regulation of which occupied much of the time 
of the General Assembly of those early days. 

Long before the advent of steamboats there had 
developd a large export trade, either with England 
direct or with its colonies in the West Indies, as 
well as a coast-wise trade from Maine to Florida, 
as is attested by the foundation logs of a contimious 
line of old wharves occupying the entire water front 
of the town of Smithfielcl, many of whose houses 
were built over large, deep brick cellars for the stor- 
age of bacon, lard, etc. Thus was developed, early, 
that trade in bacon which has continued till the 
present, resulting in the acknowledged excellency 
of the "Isle of Wight Bacon" and the "Smithfield 
Hams." 

Before the building of the Norfolk & Western 
Kailroad and other railroads through the county, 
this trade reached out for thirty or forty miles into 
the surrounding counties, and in addition thousands 
of hogs were driven, on foot, from Kentucky, Ten- 
nessee and ISTorth Carolina to supply the demands 
of this immense trade, principally with the West 
Indies, in exchange for their sugar, coffee and rum. 
Pipe staves for their sugar hogsheads, hoop poles 
and peas were also exported, and uot always in Eng- 
lish or Dutch bottoms, for we read in the old records 
of several men of this county who owned their own 
vessels, being rewarded by the G-eneral Assembly for 
their building, which has already been related. 

In 1667 four Dutch men-of-war came up the river 
and destroyed twenty vessels that were trading with 
Isle of Wight and other Southside counties, which 
event shows the extent of the export trade at that 
early period. 

1^0 indigenous product more suitable for the 
wants of the colonists was ever furnished by any 
country than "Indian Corn," and had not the early 
settlers of this country been so busily engaged in the 
raising of tobacco to the exclusion of it there would 
have been no suffering and starvation such as there 



oO A liltlEF UlSTUHY OF 

was in the early times. But trusting in the idea 
of being able to buy or barter from the Indians suf- 
fieient for their wants, and not knowing how im- 
])rovidont these poor savages were, there was fre- 
quently sueh scarcity of this mainstay of their sub- 
sistence that the early laws required every owner of 
a plantation to cultivate, under severe penalty, at 
least two acres for every laboring person, and the 
constables were required to rigidly enforce this law; 
but it seemed a difficult matter to break them up 
from their habit of the cultivation of their best lands 
in tobacco. The General Assembly never interfered 
with the price at which corn was sold, and every 
man was allowed to sell at the best rate he could; 
nor did they interfere, but a few times, with its 
exportation, and then only in anticipation of a 
scarcity, the prohibition being immediately with- 
drawn. 

In 1630, five bushels, "Winchester Measure," was, 
by hnv, made to be the contents of a barrel of corn, 
and has so remained up to this time without the 
least change. 

The raising of cotton was early introduced and 
nnich of the land of this county is well adapted to 
its cultivation, but not very extensive crops were 
raised in early times, only enough for home con- 
sumption, until many years later when the cotton 
gin was invented ; and then this county, especially 
the western portion, was largely engaged in its cul- 
tivation, and even now there is a considerable quan- 
tity raised in that part. 

This county is the ecMitre of ilio peanut bolt and 
llic soil is admirably ada[)ted to the cultivation of 
this ci-o]). ))n)ducing large white nuts wliich com- 
mands the highest |)riee on the markets. The ]iea- 
nut was introduced into this county at quite an 
early date, but the exact time and by whom M'ill 
never be known, Init the indications are that they 
were brought to Virginia from Africa during the 
time of the importation of slaves, as tliere are some 
records extant stating that they were used for food 
for the slaves wliilc licing brouglit over. Pi'ior to 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 31 

the Civil War, 1861-1865, they were little known 
except in a few of the Southern States and were 
called '^'^goober peas" or "ground peas." Since 1866 
their production has increased most wonderfully. 
The method of cultivating them has also been much 
improved, and by the aid of especially prepared im- 
plements their production has been much cheapened. 
The production, per acre, varies at from twenty- 
five to one hundred bushels, and in a great meas- 
ure, this is the money crop of the county, espe- 
cially for those farmers whose distance from trans- 
portation lines forbid their cultivation of truck, 
which have to be handled hastily owing to their per- 
ishable nature. There are several varieties of pea- 
nuts, but the Virginia and the Spanish are the most 
distinctive types, the latter of which but very few 
are raised in this county, being small in size and 
of little demand except for confectionery purposes. 
A modern estimate would place the value of the crop 
of peanuts at not less than three million dollars in 
cash money for the nuts alone, and to this should 
be added the indirect profit to be obtained from the 
vines as a forage crop, on which horses and cattle 
eagerly feed when properly cured, and for their fer- 
tilizing qualities, and on the nuts which are left on 
or in the ground when digging on which the hogs 
quickly fatten. 

The other farm products are oats, potatoes (Irish 
and sweet), of which large quantities are raised in 
the eastern portion of the county, and by easy and 
cheap means of transportation shipped to the north- 
ern cities. All fruits, large and small; all kinds 
of melons and vegetables find here a soil and cli- 
mate admirably adapted to their growth and perfec- 
tion. 

In addition to the agricultural industries many 
saw-mills are annually sending millions of feet of 
timber for sale in the busy marts of the country, 
of which the Camp Manufacturing Company is the 
largest. This plant turns out about fifty million 
feet rough lumber, and about thirty million feet of 
dressed lumber each year. 



'^2 A BRIEF HiarURY OF 

I>arge quantities of eggs and poultry are annually 
shipped to the nearby cities whose money value, when 
reduced to dollars, would l)e astonishing. 

The telephone service throughout the county is 
most excellent, nearly all of the postofliccs having 
connection with local and long distance telephones, 
and a great many of the residences, thus enabling 
the farmers to keep in constant touch with the 
markets. 

The mail facilities are very good, there being 
postoffices within easy reach of all the people, per- 
mitting the most isolated communities to enjoy the 
daily papers. 

The financial conditions of the county are very 
good, and the last ten years have been marked with 
great improvement. 

The population, in 1900, was 13,102, an increase 
of over 1,780 over that of 1890. There are 3,200 
males over the age of twenty-one years. 

In James River, opposite to the shores of Isle of 
Wight, there are about twenty-five hundred acres 
of natural oyster rocks which are included in the 
suney made by order of the General Assembly and 
in government domain, open to all. The nearness 
of these rocks to the shore enables the oystermen of 
this county to obtain their full share of salable and 
seed oysters, the latter with which they seed their 
oyster planting grounds of about two thousand 
acres, scattered over the eighteen miles of river front 
as well as many creeks and estuaries leading from 
tlie river. The oyster business is immense, and for 
eiglit months of the year affords regular and ex- 
ceedingly profitable employment to al)out i\\e liun- 
drcd men and boys. It is an exhilarating sight 
to see the oyster fleet on the 15th day of September 
(the first day of the fall season), repair to the rocks 
for their annual "catch." The employment of gaso- 
line engines in the oystering boats within the last 
few years have rendered this business much safer, 
easy and reliable. 

For four months of the year, commencing with 
earlv spring, those engaged in shad fishing are busy 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 



33 



with their nets, catehiiig this excellent tish in con- 
siderable quantities for shipment to the Jiorthern 
markets. This industry yields about ten thousand 
dollars annually. 

The climate is mild, salubrious and not subject 
to rapid variation of temperature. The health con- 
ditions • are reinarkably good, water abundant from 
nevcr-failings springs of free-stone, fresh and pure. 

Market advantages are exceptionally good both by 
water and by rail. The former is furnished by the 
Old Dominion Steamship Company, plying twice 
daily between Newport News, Norfolk, Battery Park 
and Smithfield, the principal jDort, and by numerous 
sailing vessels, many propelled by gasoline engines 
that ply in the many inland streams, almost to their 
sources. The latter is furnished by the Norfolk & 
Western Eailroad, the Seaboard Air Line Eailway, 
the Tidewater Eailroad and the Southern Eailway, 
all of which traverse the western central and ex- 
treme western ' section of the county. These roads, 
togther with the navigable streams, place all parts of 
the county within easy and quick communication 
with the markets of the whole countr3^ 

As evidence of the stability and prosperity of the 
county we invite the attention of the reader to the 
follo^wing table of taxable values of the property 
in the county for the year 1906, and which, it is 
well to sa}^, is not, by one-fourth, the full valuation 
of the propert}^, prol)ably: 



Personalty. Realty. 

Hardy District $ 225,217 00 $ 588,877 00 

Newport District 158,699 00 538,129 00 

Windsor District 165,255 00 426,774 00 

Town of Smithfield 418,847 00 435,600 00 

Town of Windsor 42,897 00 70,909 00 



Totals $1,010,915 00 $2,060,289 00 



34 A BRIEF HISTORY OF 

COLOUEI). 

Hardy District $ 31,94100 $ 67.386 00 

Newport District 30.134 00 87,472 00 

Windsor District 15.447 00 34.707 00 

Town of Smithfield 4.827 00 14,600 00 

Town of Windsor 223 00 2.275 00 



Totals % 825.272 00 % 206.440 00 

Total white and colored. .$1,093,487 00 $2,266,729 00 
Total value of properties of all kinds $3,360,216 00 




ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 37 

Towns, Villages and Post-Offices of the County. 

ALTHOUGH Smithfield was made a town by 
law in 1752, for one hundred years before 
that date it was quite a settlement and had 
quite a large trade. 

The Act of Incorporation recites: "Eepresentation 
having been made to the General Assembly that 
Arthur Smith, of Isle of Wight county, having laid 
out a portion of his land on Pagan Creek into 
streets and lots," and, further, "that the location 
being healthy and open to trade and navigation," it 
was, therefore, ordered, "that the said parcel of land 
lately belonging to the said Arthur Smith be, and 
is, hereby established a town to be called by the 
name of Smithfield. 

"And whereas, it is expedient that trustees be- ap- 
pointed to lay off and regulate the streets and set- 
tle the bounds of the town, be it enacted, therefore, 
that from and after the passing of this Act, that 
Eobert Burwell, Arthur Smith, Wm. Hodsden, 
James Baker, James Dunlop, James Arthur and 
Joseph Bridger be appointed trustees for the said 
town." 

"Be it further enacted that it shall not be law- 
ful for any person whatever to build or cause to be 
erected any wooden chimney, and if such wooden 
chimney be built it shall be the duty of the sheriff 
to tear down the same and demolish it." 

The original survey and plat were made by Jordan 
Thomas, then county surveyor, and the corporate 
limits extended westward as Main street now runs 
only as far as the old brick culvert built under the 
street at Southall's old drug store. These limits 
were extended in 1856 as Main street now runs to 
the foot of the hill at the brick culvert adjoining the 
lands of Merritt Woml)le and A. G. Spratley. Again 
in 1902 the limits of the town were further extended 
as represented by a plot now in the mayor's office of 
the said town, aud at the same time a new charter 
was granted. 

The town of Smithfield is eighty mjles. southeast 
by east from Richmond and two hundred and four 



38 A BRIEF HISTORY OF 

inUo^ from Wasliiii^iton, D. 0. ; on the south side of 
I'a.i^an ("reck, a liold and navigable stream, and at 
its intersection with Cypress Creek, forming Pagan 
ikiver; five miles from James Kiver; fifteen miles, 
ahoiit. from II;iiii])t(»ii luiads ; on an elevation of 
altout twenty-live feet ahove the waters of Pagan 
Creek, and eonnnands a heautiftd view of land and 
water. 

Smithfield is remarkably well located for health, 
comfort and business, being on a high table-land 
with tlu' dip of the land running several ways. Its 
di-ainage is most excellent and the' roads leading 
from it being located on high ridges, furnishing ex- 
celii'ut and easy comuiunication with the surround- 
ing country. 

In early times the main stage from Norfolk to 
h'icliuiond passed through Smithfield and here fresh 
relays of horses were obtained. 

I n 1 7 4S the two ferries before mentioned from 
Smitlilield across Pagan and Cypress Creeks were 
established. The cost of ferriage over each is given 
as follows: (is Id (fijc.) for each person, vehicle 
and horse ; and the same system of tolls was, for 
years ke|)t up, even after the ferries were aban- 
doiK^d and bridges built l)y individuals. 

Before the building of railroads and the advent 
of steamboats, Smithfield, being the principal port 
of Ibis county, had a large export and coastwise 
Hade, as has already been recited, principally with 
the P]nglish colonii^s in the West Indies, the princi- 
pal articles of exjiort being staves, peas, hoop poles 
and liacoii. The li'ade in bacon early gave rise to 
ninrli attention in the feeding, slaughtering and 
curing of tile bacon in this couiily, and especially as 
l() the liain. One of the packing houses in Smith- 
Held, being tlic oldest of the kind in this country, 
tlic house of I-;. M. 'Toild ^: Co., has been in the busi- 
ness for a period of at least one hundred and twenty 
seven vears as shown by an old invoice dated A]m\ 
:;()tli. l'";!!. for bams rurnished Kllerston and John 
l',.|i',,| in the Island of St. Kuslalius, West Indies, 
bv MallojL^'.Todd, Sniillilield, \'irgiiiia. Mentioned, 



I8LE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 39 

among other articles taken in exchange for hams, 
is one two-pound cannon, £13 6s and one hat 
£0 5s 4d. The trading vessel was named Parnelia, 
Francis Herbert, captain. The invoice is now in 
the possession of Mr. E. M. Todd, grandson of Mal- 
lory Todd, and the proprietor of the present estab- 
lishment. 

The shipment of cured hams, annually, from 
Smithfield, is about forty thousand. The supply of 
hogs furnishing these hams is limited, or else the 
shipments would be much heavier. It is a fact that 
the ham curers have their full supply of hams sold, 
as a rule as early as the first of March of every year. 

About 1750 the county courthouse was moved to 
Smithfield and three brick buildings erected on the 
corner of Main and Pierce streets, which were, for 
fifty years used respectively for courthouse, clerk's 
office and jail. This is now the property of Mr. 
J. 0. Thomas, who has for his residence the old 
courthouse. Across Main street from the court- 
house was a large vacant lot called the "courthouse 
green," which, on court days, was filled with con- 
veyances of all kinds used in those days. The stone 
steps of the little brick clerk's office was a favorite 
place for auctioneers to ply their trade in the sale 
of slaves, the hiring of slaves and the sale of other 
property. The county seat was moved to its present 
site in 1800, as heretofore stated. 

The Masonic Hall has been used by the fraternity 
for one hundred and eighteen years and is next to 
the oldest building for that purpose in Virginia, the 
one in Eichmond ante-dating it by three years. 

In 1840 there were ten stores (of all sorts), one 
Episcopal, one Methodist and one Baptist church, 
and less than one thousand inhabitants. In 1906 
there were twenty general stores, six grocery and 
fresh-meat stores, one cabinet maker, three under- 
takers, two druggists, three barbershops, one hotel, 
six boarding houses, five liquor stores, five eating 
houses, one saddlery shop, two dentists, three black- 
smiths, five attorneys, eight liam curing establish- 
ments, of which the reputation of E. M. Todd & Co. 



40 



A ItlUKF HISTORY OF 



is \vnr|(|-\\ iilc, three shoeiiiiikers, six ovster dealers 
fi)iir liiiy and <fraiii dealei-s, two hanks, ono ieo I'ac 
toiv. one Chinese hiundrv, four hunher dealers, om 
lihinin,-:- mill, twenty vessels in the lisliin^ and ovs 
teiin,«,f husiness, one |)rivale school, one colored fi-ei 
school, one white pnhlic hi,<fh school which irive 
a full course of instruction, includinii' music, am 
alTords to its patrons all the advanta.ncs _<,Mven ii 
anv city hii^h school in the State, and in which th' 
|ii<i,-.|)ccti\t' citizens will liml ample and increasin; 
school facilities for tlu'ir children, thri'c whit' 
churches — episcopal. Methodist ami liaptist. an( 
two colored (•liniThe- -Mellio{|i>t and Hapti>I. 

Tlir town has well pa\c(l hrick sidewalks and , 
>mootli and sidid I'oadiied. made of u"ranile spall,- 
for its sti'cets. Nearly all of the sloi-es and a i^rea 
many of the I'csidences ai'c lighted hy <ias of an ex 
eeljciil i|iialit\'. as well as the town, the uas hein; 
fnrni>li('(| hy a plant i-cecntly installed. Its street 
are heaiit ifidl\- ornamented hv many old uiajesli 
t I'ees. and niimci'alilc porches of the dwelliiii^s nea 
to llie street <^i\(' it an air of cosy hospitality that i 
in\itini;'. 'Phei-c are a iinmlici' (d" larLi'c ami attra( 
live residences, holli of colonial and modi'rn stvl 
and architecture, which. Iicini:' iidcrspei'scd. reiide 
ca> h other mutually alt I'act ivc. The Smilhlieh 
W'alci- ('ompany furnishes an excellent supply (»; 
walci' l'(ir domestic purposes, which is inexhansti- 
hic and at a \-crv liiuli pressure, to the numeron 
pidilic h\drants and (ii'c pluiis. This plant has heei 
sc\('i'clv tested ou sc\cral occasions and each tim 
has met with the ni'cds. The pi-cssure is snllicien 
and the plil^s suHicicntly (dose loi;-ether as to enahl 
the jown authorities to handle (ii'cs without the us 
of lire cULiines. 

This waier company has heen in operation ahou 
six vears, heinJ,^ in the !>e<;inninii-. conslructed on Ih 
verv hesi lines and of the (ine>t material, under th 
supervision n\' the <i;em'i'al manajici' of the com 
]ianv. Mr. I>. T. <Jay. lo whose undaunleil ener<i- 
and puiilic spii-it the inwn «d' Smithlield (»wes ; 
deht of <iralitnde which would he ditlicult to pay. am 
a com]ietent en<fineer. 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 43 

There are four firms of contracting architects and 
builders employing about twenty carpenters; these 
and four brick masons are kept busy the year round 
with the building going on in the town and at times 
requisition has to be made on workmen outside of 
the town, so many new buildings being under con- 
struction as to render the local force incompetent to 
handle the business. 

The town government consists of a mayor and 
six councilmen, elected every two years, a town ser- 
geant, two policemen, a treasurer and a commissioner 
of the revenue. The following named persons have 
served as mayors of Smithfield: 

Archibald Atkinson, from 1852 to 1855., 

Charles B. Hayden, from 1855 to 1860. 

S. Junius Wilson, from 1860 to 1863. 

John R. Purdie, from 1862 to 1866. 

W. D. Folk, from 1866 to 1871. 

Warren Van Deventer, from 1871 to 1874. 

C. F. Day, from 1874 to 1882. 

J. H. Nelms, from 1882 to 1884. 

W. D. Folk, from 1884 to 1893. 
- J. D. Jordan, from 1893 to 1899. 

C. F. Day, from 1899 to 1905. 

V. W. Joyner, from 1905. (Present mayor.) 

The Gwaltney-Bunkley Peanut Company, a joint 
stock company, of which P. D. Gwaltney, Sr., is the 
president, founder and manager, is the oldest and 
largest establishment of its kind in the world. Its 
founder was one of the earliest pioneers in the busi- 
ness of cleaning and hand-picking the dirty nuts 
brought in from the farms ; and, bringing to its man- 
agement a natural aptitude to understand and develop 
the efficiency of machinery, joined to great executive 
and administrative ability, has, from very small be- 
ginnings built up this business to its present enor- 
mous proportions. It ships its cleaned goods and 
shelled nuts all over the United States and Canada 
in great quantities. Its annual output, the enor- 
mous quantity of forty-five million pounds, fur- 
nishes continuous and remunerative employment to 



14 A BRIEF HlfiTOm' or 

sc\ci;il liiiiidrcil liMiiiIs. .Mild is the iiiDst im|)(ii-t;int 
iiuiii>trv of the town. It is witli itridc that wc state 
that this I'oiiccrii took the first pi-izc at the St. Louis 
Ivxpositiou in I'.KtI. 

Smirhlicid has (Uic olhiT iicamil clcaiiiuii- cstah- 
iishiiicnt — 'I'lic Sinilhlicid I'caiiut ( '(iiiipany. 'I'hc 
owner and inanajicr oC this coiicfrii is ('oh)iicl ('. !•'. 
I>a\. After many vcai's (if anhions hd»or. whi.li 
lias reiKh'i'ed him an expert in the knowied^fe and 
skill of handling; lu'ainits. Colonel Day has succeeded 
in liiiildiiiL;' up a line hiisiness, ^ivin^^ eiiiplovmeiit 
to many hands. The annual output of this com- 
pany, shelled and unsludled nuts, of all siradi's, 
amounts to ahout ten iiiillioii |toiiiids. 

These two estahlishments have made the town of 
Smithfield the hest market for the uiieleaned pea- 
nuts of the farmers in this section, and when a new 
■:rop commences to move into town from the sur- 
roiindiiii;' count ly. hy teams and hy water trans])()r- 
tatinii. the linsiiios of the merchanls and others 
mo\e with it. 

That sciiie idea may he ohtained as to the ])ros- 
perity of Smitlillehl and its stahility, your attention 
is called to the following;- statistics: 

lO.MMKKCK IN AMI OCT Ol" I'.\(;.\N KIVKIl KOK TlIK YKAK 
KNDlNd DIXKMHKK 31, 1906. 

Horses and mules, 500. value $ 02.500 00 

Potatoes, barrels, 40,000. value 80.000 00 

Lumber, feet, 6,000,000, value 90,000 00 

Watermelons. 300,000. value 15,000 00 

HricUs, 40.000. value 3.200 00 

Casolinc. barrels, 250. value 3.000 00 

Kmail truck, packages, 10,000, value 10.000 00 

Coal, tons, 250. value 10,000 00 

Fertilizers, tons, 4,000, value 50,000 00 

Oysters, tons, 1,758. value 16,000 00 

reanuts, tons, 71.360, value 2,364.832 00 

Micsellaneous, tons, 85,387, value 4.164.040 00 

The Home Telephone Company, developed within 
(i\e vears from one phone, iianielv: that of the 
( i waltiicv-l»iinkle\' I'eaniit ('oiiipany. is now a joint 
slock ciimpaiiy with two himdred and seventy-live sta- 
tions, including- forty postoiru'cs, runninjj: into the 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 45 

adjoining counties of Southampton, Nansemond and 
Suriy; with cable connections with Newport ISTews 
and Norfolk; with long distance connections with 
any city of the United States; connected with the 
Western Union and Postal Telegraph Companies, it 
offers, at cheap rates, exceptionally good service. 

The mail facilities are most excellent and con- 
sist of three daily mails, except on Sunday, when 
there is only one; three star routes, touching at 
twelve country offices, and, in every respect, the ser- 
vice is all that could be desired. 

Transportation, by water, is exceptionally good, 
furnished by the Old Dominion Steamship Com- 
pany by two fine river steamers, connecting with 
Newport News and Norfolk by two trips each, daily, 
and also by a score or more sailing vessels or gaso- 
line motor boats, whose freight rates for heavy 
bulky articles are exceptionally cheap. Eecently an 
office of Adams Express Company has been opened 
at the Avharf of the Old Dominion Steamship Com- 
pany. 

The town of Windsor is a thriving town and is 
located on the Norfolk &' Western Railroad about 
seven and a half miles a little west of south from 
Isle of Wight courthouse, and thirty-four miles 
from Norfolk. Its first dwelling and store were 
erected in 1855. In 1856 it became a depot of the 
Norfolk & Western Railroad (then the Norfolk & 
Petersburg R. R.), and has remained so until the 
present time, gradually building up its trade and 
population, and to-day stands as neat and compact 
a little town as one needs see. 

It has long been the most important depot for the 
dissemination of mails, and from it several Star 
Routes emanate. It has a large, flourishing trade, 
many thousand bushels of peanuts and other farm 
products being annually shipped, and its people are 
well known for their hospitality. 

It Avas incorporated a town May 15tl% 1902 • atid 
its officers arc AV. J. Rhodes, mayor; and C. T. King, 
Jno. S. Vaughan, J. M. Raby, J. J. Rhodes, C. P. 
Joyner and L. M. Roberts its councilmen. 



46 A BRIEF HISTORY OF 

It has four general stores, two groceries, two 
l)arber shops, one shoemaker, one millinery, three 
churehes (Methodist, Baptist and Christian) on<' 
liiirli school, one jjeanut factory, one ])laning mill. 
(\V(i catini,^ lionscs, one hlacksmith shop, one bank, 
two tclej)lione ollices, one telegraph ofTiec (Western 
I'nion), two nndertaking establishments, one livery 
stable, one furnitnre store and one liotel. 

its |)opulation is over four hnndred and the value 
of its real and personal property is $800,000.00, and 
the aggregate amount of its annual business $250.- 
000. 00. 

The village of ("arrsville is located on the Sea- 
Itoard Air T.ine Railroad thirty-one miles from Ports- 
mouth. Ml a thickly settled community. There are 
four general stores, each doing a good business; 
four daily mail and passenger trains; telegraph and 
telephone communication ; express and money order 
facilities; rural free mail- delivery ; a graded public 
school ; population one hundred. 

The surrounding land is in a high state of culti- 
vation, ])roducing from twenty-five to seventy-| 
five bushels of corn and from forty to one hundred 
bushels of peanuts per acre, annual shipment of 
peanuts 40,000 bags. The land hereabouts is also 
adapted to the cultivation of cotton and yields from 
$20 to $100 worth per acre. 

The village is noted for its moral and religious 
tone; its magnificent shade trees and its beautiful. 
hospilnlilc liomcs. 

'IMte thriving village of Rescue, of three hundred 
inhabitants, is situated on the east side of Jones 
Creek, abcnit one-half of a mile from its mouth, on 
a lii^li bank, which gives it a coniiuauding appear- 
ance from I'agan Creek and the surrounding coun- 
try. 

'V]\o land was originally a ])art of ibe farm of 
Wil.iani Hind'", fi-oni whose heirs, in 1SS2, Williaiu 
'l\ Carter purchased a tract of land, laying it olT 
into lots and periling them. Since then the popu- 
lation has rapidly increased, its fine harbor making 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 47 

it an excellent location for those wishing to engage 
in oystering and fishing. 

It has three general stores, two white and one 
colored school, one Methodist church (Eiver View), 
founded with a membership of one hundred. The 
Heptasophs have a commodious hall, with a mem- 
bership of fifty or sixty. 

Jones Creek penetrates about five miles beyond 
the village into the surrounding country, out of 
which a packet boat makes regular trips to ISTor- 
folk, and the village is otherwise in a prosperous 
condition. 

An Act of the General Assembly in 1692, ap- 
pointed certain places as ports of entry for collec- 
tion of custom, and at which public warehouses for 
the storing of tobacco Avere ordered to be erected. 
Two shillings per hogshead was the duty, so the act 
reads. 

"For Isle of Wight county, at the mouth of Pagan 
Creek, formerly laid out for a town, by tlie name of 
Pates Field; and paid for, and houses built upon it." 

This settlement has become the thriving hamlet 
of Battery Park, with a population of about two 
hundred, three-fourths of whom are engaged in the 
oyster business. The steamers plying from Smith- 
field to Norfolk and Newport News land at its wharf 
four times a day, carrying much freight, especially 
shad for the Northern markets in the early spring. 

It has three general stores, three marine railways, 
two blacksmith shops, one oyster packing house, one 
Baptist church, one school house, postoffice, several 
builders of small boats, who have recently turned 
out some very speedy craft, and its inhabitants are 
the owners of some six hundred acres of oyster plant- 
ing grounds, and it also has two daily mails. 

The village of Zuni lies on the Norfolk & West- 
ern Eailroad, seven miles west of Windsor and on 
Blackwater Eiver, the dividing line between this and 
Southampton county. It has three general stores, 
one blacksmith shop, one livery stable, one hotel, 
and, in recent years, has become to be a very fine 



48 



.1 liini'.F nisToh'Y OF 



pr.iimt iiKirkrt. lii;i.lc so l.y tile liustlc ol" its husi- 
iii'ss iiicii. often riv;ilin,«,^ Sinitlitlcld in prici's. It 
li.is ;i l;ii-i:(. icn-itorv fruiii uliidi to draw trade, 
uiiicli is thicklv settled and in a very lii',di state of 
cultivation. Tlieie are four passenger trains daily 
sto|)|iin<r at this point. 

There ai'e twenty-two other poslolliccs in the 
county other tiian tiie towns and villages heretofore 
named, each having one, and some two, dailv mails. 
These olliees are generally located at some general 

store and eon\eMienll\ situated. 



Military History. 
Q^ .\('()\-S K'KHKIJJO.X: In this, the lirst 
ry\ (ighi in this country foi- constitutional lih- 
crty. Isle of ^^'ight. iindouhtedly, hore her 
lull pai't. although the record does not (liscl().<e the 
names of hei' citizens who actually participated, hut 
history records that Colonel .loseph Hridger, of this 
county. !lic President of the King's CommissionerP, 
had to lly to Accomack, where Covernor Berkeley 
was, to pi'olect his life from his enraged country- 
men: and on the retui'u of this ''resolute old gen- 
tleman." aftci' the death of Kacon and the disper- 
sion of his followers, he heeanie \'ery active in pun- 
ishing ami hringing hack to their allegiance those 
who had heen his opponents. John .lennings, the 
ch'rk i)\' his coui't. \\a> one who opoiised the cause 
of Hacon and was sentenced to he hanished fnun 
the colony; hu! heing \er\ old and hrokeii down in 
health and fortune and the lime id' executing the 
.^enteni-e of hanishnieut liasing heen, hv appeal, ex- 
tended M'\cral lime>. he died hefoi'c it coidd he ear- 
I'ied into etVeei. John .Mar>hall. another ]irominent 
adherent of llacoii. was maile to h(g- pardon in court 
on hended knees for "scandalous words uttered he- 
fore the <-oninnssioners'" : and the following recan- 
tation was suhscrihed li\ .\ndu'o>e rx'unell. -lolin 
Maj'.-hall. Ifiehard dnrdan. K'iehard Sliarpe. An- 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 49 

tliony Fulgham, James Bagnall, Edward Miller, 
John Davis and Eichard Penny : "We, the subscribed, 
having drawn up a paper in behalf of the inhabitants 
of Isle of Wight county as to the grievances of the 
said county, recant all the false and scandalous re- 
flection upon Governor, Sir William Berkeley, con- 
tained in a paper presented to the commissioners 
and promise never to be gnilty again of the like 
mutinous and rebellious practices/^ We further 
find that Colonel James Powell, while serving in 
the army of Berkele}'', was wounded in the knee. 

Eevolution: Another century rolls around and 
the colonists are again involved in a war for the 
preservation of their rights as British subjects, and 
in the long and tedious, but glorious war that fol- 
lowed the Declaration of Independence, its citizens 
bore their full share. Before a gun was fired in 
actual warfare, when the port of Boston was under 
an embargo. Isle of Wight county promptly came 
forward with a written expression of sympathy; and 
a vessel loaded with corn for her assistance was sent. 

A complete list of the quota of soldiers sent to 
the Continental Army will never be known on ac- 
count of the destruction of records in Eichmond by 
Arnold and in this county by Tarleton; and only a 
very incomplete list can be offered ; but it is known 
that the following were in the army with Washing- 
ton: Colonel Josiah Parker, Major Francis Boykin, 
Captain James Johnson, General John S. Wills, 
Jesse Matthews, James Casey, Edward Ward, Eobin 
Turner, Samuel McCoy, John Forrest, Henry Hill, 
Ben (Whalebone) Jones and Moses Atkins. We 
find that Sarah Atkins, the wife of this last named 
soldier, was allowed three pounds annually during 
his absence. 

The militia companies were kept with a full com- 
plement of officers, for, in almost every court, we 
find orders supplying the vacancies caused by death 
or resignation; and although there was not much 
actual fighting in this county, and only three actual 
invasions by the British, but many threatened in- 



50 A BRIEF HISTORY OF 

vasions, tliov must have boon, on account of the large 
water front, kept quite busy. 

Colonel Tarleton, at the head of a considerable 
body of British Cavalry, passed through the county ^ 
twice, visited Smithfield (then the county seat) ' 
with the intention of destroying the records, but 
was foiled in that purpose as has been narrated al- 
ready. They then visited "AEacclesfield," the home 
of Colonel Josiah Parker, in the hope of capturing 
the Colonel, but were also foiled in this purpose; 
however, they destroyed many valuable papers they 
found there; and everywhere along their line of 
march thej' committed the most wanton destruc- 
tion, carrying off the slaves, cattle, horses and other 
property. In one of these raids they were attacked 
by a body of Isle of Wight militia at a place called 
"Scotts Old Field," now known as Exchange, in 
Xansemond county, and mot with a defeat, being 
driven across Milners Creek by the militia. 

That the militia of the county saw considerable 
service is apparent by an order made at the term of 
court held in March, 1782, which reads as follows: 
"To His Excellency, Benjamin Harrison, &c. The 
court, in behalf of the inhabitants of the county of 
Isle of Wight, humbly represent the unhappy situa- 
tion of their county during the last invasion. Being 
a frontier county, w'e were actually exposed to the 
depredations of the enemy, who not only landed 
almost daily on our shores, but repeatedly marched 
through the county, committing the most wanton 
destruction * * * 

"We further represent that during the last in- 
vasion, we had one-half of our militia on duty for 
the first three months and afterwards one-third part 
till about the 20th of November, and that in case of 
another invasion, to which we are liable, we shall 
need the assistance of others; and in view of all 
these facts, we have discharged ourselves from the 
operation of an act entitled An Act for the filling 
lip of our quota of troops in the continental ser- 
vice." 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 51 

A¥ar of 1812: In this second war with Great 
Britain, Isle of Wight county was ready with her 
money and men to do her full part. No sooner than 
war was declared (June 11th, 1811), the raising of 
companies by voluntary enlistment went on actively, 
and before the end of the war (1815), several hun- 
dred men of this county had become soldiers of the 
United States. Ten companies, containing, in the 
aggregate, five hundred enlisted men, were mus- 
tered into the service of the United States as the 
Twenty-ninth Eegiment of Virginia Volunteers, of 
which Joseph W. Ballard, of this county, was major, 
in command. The officers of these companies were: 
Captains Wm. B. Moody, Eichard Bidgood, Joseph 
Atkinson, James Atkinson,' David iJick, Simon 
Gwaltney, Eobert Jordan, John Lawrence, Eobert 
Tynes and Charles Wrenn. Lieutenants David Dick, 
Eobert West, Charles Wrenn, Joseph Godwin, Jno. 
W. Eley, Josiah Holleman, Willis Morris, Exum 
Eley, George W. Driver, Joseph Hodsden. Ensigns — 
Isaac Moody, Tristam Bunkley, George Wilson, Jo- 
siah Wrenn, Henry Applewhaite, Dawson Delk. Jn 
addition to the foregoing named companies Captain 
Shield mustered a company of forty-eight men, 
which was organized in Smithfield, entered the ser- 
vice February 8th, 1813, and served out their enlist- 
ment at Norfolk: Officers — Hamilton Shield, cap- 
tain; Peter Jones, lieutenant; Archibald Atkinson, 
ensign. 

In this war the enemy attempted very few incur- 
sions into this county and never far from their ships. 
The Twenty-ninth was called upon to show its mei- 
tle but once. The British attempted to land at the 
"Eocks" on James Eiver, but Captains Dick and 
Wrenn, with their companies, poured such a well- 
directed fire into their ranks that they returned to 
their vessels immediately. 

The British man-of-war, "Plantagenet," for sev- 
eral months lay ofi the "Eocks," and although her 
very presence and her occasional changing of posi- 
tion kept detachments of the Twenty-ninth busy 
watching her movements, after the reception given 



52 A BRIEF HISTom' OF 

lier men on their first attempt to land, they never, 
durintj the entire war. repeated the experiment, 

^lexical! War: In tiiis war the scene of action was 
so far removed from this section and vohinteers 
poured in in such overwhehning numl)ers, that the 
United States refused to receive thousands, hence 
this county had no opportunity to ]>nrticipate in it 
in any organized method; hut adventurous spirits 
enlisted in other places. James Davis enlisted in 
Captain TJohert Scott's company of Richmond; Al- 
fred H. Darden and Richard Parr, happening to be 
in Mississippi, enlisted in the regiment commanded 
hy Colonel Jefferson Davis, and were in several bat- 
tles. Benjamin Gale enlisted in Captain J. P. 
Young's company in Portsmouth. 

The war between the States (1861-1865) : At 
this time in the history of our county there was no 
])()]iti(al doctrine more universally accepted by the 
Southern ])eople than that of "State Sovereignty." 
Without entering into a discussion of the questions 
involved it is considered pertinent to say that when 
the election was held to ascertain whether the peo- 
})Ie of this county stood for or against secession, there 
were eight hundred and sixty-one registered voters 
in the county and the same number were cast in the 
said election and every vote was for secession. This, 
too. in the face of the fact that this county was 
practically an anti-slavery county, for we read in the 
records an exceptionally large number of deeds of 
manumission and in the wills a groat many clauses 
f)f the same character. 

The first troops stationed in this county during 
this war was the brigade of General John C. Pem- 
IxTton. composed of Ramseur's Artillery of North 
Carolina, and the Third North Carolina Infantry, 
commanded by Colonel W. D. Pender. They re- 
ninin(>d about one year, l)oing withdi'awn m April. 
ISC.v'. 

The first Federal troops that invaded the county 
was a New York re-'iment of eavali'v under com- 




o 




~1 1« • ,•( 



'•. 3 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 55 

mand of Colonel Dodge. This was in Jnly, 1862. 
They reached the courthouse. A slight action took 
place near Ducksville between a detachment of the 
Southampton Cavalry and Spear's JSTew York Cav- 
alry, and a few horses on both sides were killed. 
In a short while afterwards a detachment of Dodge's 
Cavalry, making a reconnoisance eastward from the 
courthouse having reached the neighborhood of 
Carroll's Bridge, came near surprising a body of 
Confederate troops from Colonel Claiborne's com- 
mand, who were worshipping at a nearby church. 
A tiniely warning was given and the Confederates 
rushed out and engaged the enemy, killing and 
wounding several and capturing thirty-two men and 
twenty-six horses. 

In January, 1864, a Federal steamer in the James 
Eiver was fired upon; the pilot and crew driven 
below deck and the vessel beached, but in a short 
while floated again by the assistance of the incom- 
ing tide, and carried the news to Newport News. 
Immediately the gunboat Smith Briggs, with about 
one hundred and fifty men, was sent up the river 
and to Smithfield, where the troops landed. They 
started into the country to intercept the Confeder- 
ates and were met at Scotts Factory by Major Stur- 
tevant with a section of artillery and a small force of 
infantry and cavalry. In the slight skirmish which 
followed. Lieutenant Giggett, of North Carolina, was 
killed. The Federal troops then retired to Smith- 
field, expecting to re-embark, but their vessel had 
gone and not returned. They were attacked the fol- 
lowing morning by Major Sturtevant, and after a 
considerable action, forced them to surrender. While 
the fight was in progress the Smith Briggs returned 
and essayed to take part in the action, but Sturte- 
vant's gunners soon sent a solid shot into her steam- 
chest, which at once disabled her and put her out 
of commission. About one hundred and twenty 
prisoners were captured and a small quantity of 
supplies were obtained before setting the vessel on 
fire and blowing her up. 

In 1864 the Fifteenth Massachusetts Infantry 



56 A BRIEF HISTORY OF 

landed at Burwells Bay and proceeded a short dis- 
tance towards Smithfield and were met by a small 
Confederate force, and after considerable firing 
fr<mi long range retired to their vessel without any 
casualties on either side, so far as is known. 

These constitute all the encounters of hostile 
troops in this county, but the Federal cavalry raided 
through the county and armed boats came to Smith- 
field frequently; but two things, happily, prevented 
them from remaining long in the county and in 
Smithfield, namely: The presence of a considerable 
body of signal corps men and scouts, whose where- 
abouts were uncertain, and the burning of the two 
l)iidgcs at Smithfield, making of it a "cul de sac'' 
which they dare not enter to remain long. 

Spanish-American War: There was no organized 
force from this county which participated in this 
struggle of short duration, and which was over be- 
fore many citizens could enlist ; and there was, more- 
over, in the beginning of the trouble, much diversity 
of opinion as to the justice or the feasibility of 
making up a war upon the issues involved. How- 
ever, a few of the individuals in the county joined 
various commands. Among those who did service 
in this "late unpleasantness with Spain'' were: A. 
S. Johnson, who was a lieutenant in the Fourth U. S. 
Volunteer Infantry (Immunes), George E. Morri- 
son, a member of Company G, Sixth U. S. Cavalry, 
which took part in the battle at San Juan, Santiago ; 
J. E. Tucker, 0. M. Johnson, Robt. Drewry, D. T. 
Crowley and John I. Clarke, all of the latter being 
members of the Fourth Virginia Volunteer In- 
fantry. 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 59 

Religious History and Churches. 
/^?|~p^HAT many of the early settlers of Virginia 
were pious "folk" and deeply imbiied 
with the missionary spirit, there is little 
doubt, for the very instructions of the London Com- 
pany which Captain John Smith brought with him, 
contained large provision for the maintenance of 
religion among the people and for the conversion 
of the savages. 

The Episcopal Church commenced with the set- 
tlement at Jamestown, and although it had many 
difficulties with which to contend, viz. : the untried 
experiment of the colonization of a new country; 
which demanded the greater part of the time of 
the colonists to gain a home and subsistence and pro- 
tection from surrounding savages; the incubus of 
the moral degeneracy of the mother church in Eng- 
land ; the scarcity of ministers, whose supervision 
and control was lodged in the hands of a Church 
dignitary, the Bishop of England, three thousand 
miles away. These, and other difficulties, greatly 
hampered the Church in the colony, yet its early 
ministers and many pious laity found time, amid 
the unusual and new conditions of their lives, to 
teach the catechism, and other religious instruc- 
tions, to the children and servants; and it certainly 
speaks well for the religious principles of those men, 
early pioneers of American civilization, the readi- 
ness, nay eagerness, with which they undertook and 
did build that long series of old churches, ten or 
twelves miles apart, from the lower part of Nor- 
folk county to and beyond the Appomattox Eiver, 
a monument to their piety, and to the wisdom and 
forethought of the London Company and the Vir- 
ginia House of Burgesses. 

Having in mind these facts, can we wonder at 
the progress this country has made and the many 
blessings that have been showered upon us, when 
our A^ery foundation was laid on the Word and 
teachings of the Almighty? 

Of all these old churches, many built originally 



60 A BRIEF HISTOIiV OF 

of logs or lumber, ami a low built of brick, with a 
ffw exceptions here ami there, all have gone. 

Of those early colonial churches none have re- 
maind in a better state of preservation, and pre- 
sents to the beholder a grander or more antique ap- 
pearance than the '"Old Brick Church," in this 
county. 

Its site is just where wisdom and common sense 
would have jilaced it ; five miles from the river set- 
tlt'inents, live miles from a church in Nansemond; 
live miles from two wide and deep streams, which 
would have cut it off from a church in the Upper 
I'Mrish ; on the main road leading from the settle- 
ment on Lawns Creek to those in Upper Xorfolk. 

The building of this church was begun in 1632 
liy Joseph Bridger. father of Colonel Joseph 
Bridger, one of the King's Council for the Colony 
of Virginia, w'ho died in 1682, was buried on his 
farm, "White ^Marsli,"' about three miles from the 
( liurch and his grave marked by a marble slab 
which has been removed and deposited in the church. 

This old structure is in a remarkably good state 
of preservation and has stood well against the "cor- 
roding tooth of time," on account of the excellency 
of materials and the fidelity with which it was built, 
and the good fortunes of having had, at all times, 
some sort of a roof covering it, it being re-shingled 
about 1737, and again aliout 1838, with good cypress 
shingles both times. 

Built of bricks, made of clay of the very best 
i|uality, found in its immediate vicinity, and put 
together with a mortar made from well l)urnt oyster 
shell lime and building saTid, 1)oili of which can be 
found near bv in gi-eal (luaiitities, the sand being 
taken from the base of the hill on which it rests, the 
mortar becoming almost as hard as Hint, preventing 
the displaeemeiit of a brick without teai-ing away a 
part of those to which it is attached, ballling the 
incursions of the would-be des|)oiler, has assisted 
greatly in its preservation. 

So far as our knowledge extends this is the oldest 
house of worship now standing on American soil en- 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 61 

cased by its original walls. The cathedral at St. 
Augustine, Florida, is the oldest church, but that 
has been destroyed by fire several times, but each 
time has been rebuilt. The "Old Brick Church" is 
th oldest church of the Protestant faith standing 
in America. 

Tarleton's British troopers rested beneath the 
shade of the venerable oaks which surround it; the 
Virginia militia, in the war of 1812 bivouacked 
around it, as also did the Confederate soldiers of 
1861. Many political speeches and barbecues have 
transpired in the grove adjoining, whose shade has 
furnished the trysting place, for more than two 
centuries, of lovers. 

The church was used but little from the outbreak 
of the Eevolution to some time in the 1830's when 
it was almost completely abandoned a prey to the ele- 
ments. In spite of this fact the gpand old walls 
stood a monument to the purpose for which it was 
built and to the builders. In June, 1887, the Eev- 
erend David Barr, rector of the church in Smith- 
field, passing the old church from his attendance 
upon a convocation in "Old St. John's" in Nanse- 
mond, another of the structures of the colonial pe- 
riod, discovered that, by a recent storm, what re- 
mained of the old roof had been shaken from its 
holdings and had fallen in or was tottering. He im- 
mediately undertook its restoration, and though 
fraught with difficulties of the most serious char- 
acter, chiefly the lack of funds, he begun the work, 
with great energy. Before he had completed his 
work, hoAvever, he moved to Washington, D. C, and 
the duty of its completion devolved upon his succes- 
sor, the Rev. P. G. Scott, and the vestry of the 
church in Smithfield, notably among whom was Mr. 
E. S. Thomas, who, for his prolonged and assiduous 
efforts for the restoration of the "Old Church" n-. 
serves especial mention. 

The funds used in the restoration were subscribed 
to by all sorts and conditions of people. In some 
cases the workmen gave their labor, and by sub- 
scriptions from the people of nineteen States, of 



•;2 A BlilKF HISTOnY OF 

which a record is kept in the Vestry Book of Christ 
(hurch in Smithficld. 

It stands to-day beautiful within and without, 
and filled with memorials to those connected with its 
own history and that of the colony. Its stained 
glass chancel window, eighteen feet by twelve, made 
in London, divided into twelve sections, each dedi- 
cated to some well known character, prominent in 
Church or State, is a most striking piece of art. All 
of the windows are of stained glass, memorials to 
those connected with its history, of beautiful design. 
Its carved altar and exquisite reading desk; its 
wine glass pul})it with its broad steps and high 
sounding board ; its beautiful font, of the purest 
Carara marble, made in England, are especially 
attractive. The pews are of the original style, made 
of native heart pine. All these things impress the 
worshipper with a deep sense of solemnity when 
worshipping the "God of our Fathers," where they, 
themselves, some hundred years ago, worshipped; 
and to the transient visitor, it cannot fail to be in- 
teresting, both on account of its own intrinsic beauty 
and design and the historical memories of other and 
ancient days in the life of our country it brings to 
his recollection. 

It is pertinent to say here that this church is 
accessible from Smithfield by carriage and can be 
seen by visitors at all times. 

There is one other church of more than ordinary 
interest in this county, it being the mother of the 
churches of the Baptist denoniinalimi in this sec- 
tion, "Mill Swamp." 

It is a well established fact that the Baptists 
established a place of worship known as Burleigh 
church somewhere in the vicinity of Mill Swamp, 
perhaps on the very site on which is located the 
|)resent church, sixty years before it had an ex- 
istence, for, at the solicitation of Baptist brethren 
in Isle'of Wight, made to their brethren in London, 
the Kev. Koht. Wdi.di'ii, in 1711. did reach this 
countv and estalilish the old clnn'ch above referred 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 63 

to. In January, 1727, Caspar Mints and Eichard 
Jones came over from England, settled near the 
church, and the latter was its pastor for over thirty 
years, then following twenty years of unrecorded 
history, and after a career of about forty-three years 
became extinct and was lost to history. In 1773, the 
Eev. John Meglamore, from Raccoon Swamp, now 
Antioch chiirch, Sussex county, preached and bap- 
tized a number of people ; these people, on July 3nd, , 
1774, met near the site of the present church and 
organized themselves into a Baptist church, with 
David BarroAV as pastor, under his name. For sev- 
enteen years this church was called "The Church in 
Isle of Wight," or "David Barrow's Church." In 
1791 it assumed its present name. This old church 
sent out colonies at a later period to Smithfield, 
Moore's Swamp, Tucker Swamp and Bethesda. The 
first meeting house of this church was built in 1832 
and repaired and remodelled in 1895. It is now 
a brick structure with a seating capacity of several 
hundred. It has a large congregation and is in a 
flourishing condition. The yearly protracted meet- 
ings or revivals at this old church are of special 
note. While the same custom prevails in other 
churches in this vicinity, yet, on account of the 
length of time they have been held at Mill Swamp, 
the hospitality of its members and the magnificent 
spreads put upon the tables for the sustenance of the 
attendants upon these meetings, have made them, 
probably, more talked, of at this church than at any 
other one. 

There were two other colonial churches in this 
county, of the Episcopal faith, being the Bay church, 
abo^it five miles from Smithfield on Burwell's Bay, 
(originally Worrosquoyacke Bay), on the farm now 
owned by Dr. W. D. Turner. It was erected in 1750, 
and after the Revolution, like many of the old 
chiirches, it was abandoned. About 1810 the estate 
upon which it was located came into the hands of 
those who had no reverence for it as a church, and 
it was pulled down and a kitchen built of the bricks. 



64 A BRIEF HISTORY OF 

niid the backs of the pews were used to make parti- 
ti«ins in a barn. The latter was struck by lightning 
and destroyed, the negroes always declared, by act 
of God. The l>cll was exchanged in Richmond for 
a brandy still. 

The other cliurcii, caHod Isle of Wight chapel, 
was located about eighteen miles northwest of Smith- 
iiold and was erected about 1750. About 1820 it 
was burnt down. The site afterwards came into 
possession cf the O'Kellyites oi- Clii-istians. and is 
now Antioch. 

The Quakers had a strong following in Isle of 
Wight county at an early date. They had a large 
meeting house in what was then and is now known 
as "Leevy Neck." 

The leading men of the county were not disposed 
to be harsli in carrying out the laws of non-con- 
formity against the Quakers, and although a few of 
them were fined, they generally met when and where 
thev wished, and in 1099. their meeting houses were 
regularly licensed and the only complaint they had 
was that they were taxed to support the Established 
Church. 

There is no Quaker church in this county at the 
present time, but there is one not many miles from 
the line in the county of Southampton, once a part 
of this county. 

There are other churches in the county with an 
interesting history, but space will not admit of dis- 
cussion as to them here. All of the churches in this 
county are hereunder named. 

Episcopal: "Old Brick ("lumir" and Clirist 
church, at Smithfield, 

Baptist: Mill Swamp, Smithfield, Windsor, Co- 
losse, Beaver Dam, Central Tlill, Whitehead's Grove, 
and Battery Park. 

Methodist: Benn's, Smithfield. Czzells, Bethel, 
Bethany, Windsor (Shiloh). ami Woodland. 

Christian: Antioch ("On site of old "Isle of 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 67 

Wight chapel," hereinabove referred to), Windsor, 
Mt. Carriiel and Courthouse. 

There are several colored churches of the Baptist, 
Methodist and Christian denomination scattered 
throughout the county. 

Schools. 
<r7]Sr EAELY colonial times some little efEort was 
made, by donations of pious individuals, to 
maintain a few free schools, separate and apart 
from the parochial schools which the ministers of 
the Established Church were required to teach or 
have taught in the parishes. 

At a meeting of Thomas Bennett's men, had the 
7th of February, 1635, we find that Benjamin Sims, 

who came over in ship, was present. 

This man was a survivor of the Indian massacre 
and lived in Isle of Wight, near the "Rocks." He 
aftierwards moved to Elizabeth City county and, by 
his will, in 1634, provided for the first free school 
in America. Funds from this donation are still 
used in the conduct of the high school in Hampton, 
Virginia. 

In 1635 Captain John Moon, in his will, left to 
the overseer of the poor money and cattle for the 
clothing and schooling of poor children. 

In 1668 Henry King's will reads: "I give one 
hundred acres of land lieing and being next adja- 
cent to Mr. England, to this Parish where I now 
live towards the maintenance of a free school." 

There is a small creek in the vicinity of "Ballace 
Marsh" called King's Creek and not far from it a 
farm called King's. Probably this Henry King 
lived in this section. 

In 1719 Rev. Thomas Bailey in a letter to the 
Bishop of London says: "There are four hundred 
families in my parish and four small free schools, 
taught by a Mr. Hunt, a Mr. Irons, a Mr. Gills and 
a Mr. Reynolds." Where these schools were located 
no one will ever know. 

In 1753 Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, the wife of Arthur 
Smith, who had recently had incorporated the town 



68 A BRIEF HISTORY OF 

of Sinithficld, purchased a lot and had built thereon 
a house twenty-eight feet by sixteen feet, in which 
should be taught six poor orphan children; the boys 
for three years and the girls for two years. The 
master was to receive twenty shillings and had the 
]irivilege of taking as UDiny additional pupils as 
he might deem necessary. 

This good lady died in 1774 and by her will gave 
"one hundred and twenty ]»ounds to the school for 
the teaching of six more indigent children.'' Colonel 
Byrd says she was a lady who had "copied Solo- 
mon's complete housewife exactly." 

This was the nucleus of a free school and remained 
as such for about twenty years when it became a 
j)rivatc school at which many men of an elder gen- 
eration of Smitlilit'ld were prepared for college and 
university education. 

This ])uilding was conveyed to the Masonic frater- 
nity in 1788 and had been in continual use as a 
^Fasonic Lodge for one hundred and eighteen years, 
the next oldest building for that purpose in Vir- 
ginia, the Lodge in KMcIiiiioikI. having been, three 
years prior to this, dedicated. 

These feeble efforts at public or free schools seem 
paltry, but there were good private schools in those 
days, nor were the jDcople indifferent to the education 
of their children, for in almost all the old wills the 
testators made some provision or left some direc- 
tions for their ('(htcat ion. 

The usual plan adopted was for some rich or well- 
to-do man to build a school house, employ a teacher 
for tlic education of his own cliildren and to invite 
hi> neigiibors to seiul their cliildren and to help de- 
fra\ the expenses. 

These early teachers, male and female, were gen- 
erally from the Northern States, as the Southern 
youth, after the completion of their college educa- 
tion invariably rushed into the professions of law, 
medicine or jiolitics; but these educators, fi-om a sec- 
tion that we afterwards, for a time, leanu-d to hate, 
were almost uiiivei>ally well trained, well prepared, 
u'on!-cientious and etlicienl tcaclici->. and \t'ry many 




Old Pciii.ic School Blilui^g at Coui;TiiobbL. 




New Public School Buildixg at Courtiiocsi 



ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VIRGINIA 71 

of them took the Southern view of the political situa- 
tion of 1861 and remained with us during the war — 
a war fated with many direful results to this South- 
land, but none more disastrous than the complete 
annihilation of every school. 

Immediately after the war, although its horrid de- 
vastation required every effort of the people to obtain 
a bare subsistence, efforts were made in many places 
to maintain private schools, the teachers being often 
partly paid in products of the farm; when, happily, 
for the moral good of the community and the salva- 
tion of the rising generation from almost complete 
ignorance, in 1870 the Public School System was 
adopted; which, at first, met with considerable op- 
position, largely on account of the necessity of pro- 
viding schools for the negroes; but thanks to the 
inherent goodness of the people, a broader philan- 
thropy prevailed and that feeling has happily per- 
ished. 

From the date of its adoption to the present there 
have been but three County Superintendents of 
Schools, E. M. Morrison, for twelve years; Wm. S. 
Holland, for four years, and Dr. G-avin Rawles, the 
present incumbent. 

In May, 1871, the people of the county showed 
their approval of the new public school system by 
voting to levy a special capitation tax of fifty cents 
for the maintenance of their free schools. 

The intellectual status of its corps of teachers has 
gradually improved until it stands equal to that of 
any co^mty of the State, which felicitous result has 
been gained by free scholarship in colleges and the 
training at normal schools. 

The county is divided into three school districts, 
which correspond to and bear the same name as the 
three Magisterial Districts, viz. : Newport, Hardy 
and Windsor; with the town of Smithfield as a 
separate district. 

The school population, white and colored, is four 
thousand three hundred and ninety-six; number of 
schools, seventy. The amount expended annually 
for teachers' wages is fourteen thousand dollars. The 



72 A BlilEF HISTORY 

\ow^{\\ of the sihool term varies. In Sniitlitield it 
is nine luontlis. in Windsor District it is eight 
months, and in Xewport and Hardy Districts it is 
seven niontiis. 

Smithfield, AN'indsoi- and Isle of WiLihl courtliouse 
liave eaeli a liii^h school, and in other parts of the 
(onnly there are seven graded schools, in all of 
which some of the high school branches are taught. 



Smithfield Hams 



ARE THE FINEST 
IN THE WORLD 



IF YOU WANT THE 

GENUINE HOME CURED 

WRITE TO 



C F. DAY 

Smithfield, Va. 



Every Ham Guaranteed 



''BUY THE BEST' 





P.D.GwaltneyJr »Co 



IF YOU cannot obtain our 
Hams and other cuts of 
meats of your grocer 
write us and we will see 
that you are supplied ^ ^ 



P. D. Gwaltney, Jr., & Co. 

SMITHFIELD, VA. 



Banking Service that Meets 
Every Requirement 



Capital Stock, - - - $100,000 
Resources, 500,000 



Ol 



HIS Bank has achieved a repu- 
tation for constantly exerting 
every effort to meet the require- 
ments of its depositors, irrespective 
of the extent of their deposits. 
^ Business men, professional men, 
wage - earners — persons in every 
walk of life — are invited to become 
its customers. 



THE 
BANK OF SMITHFIELD 

SMITHFIELD, VA. 



ORGANIZED 1869 



The Farmers Bank of Nansemond 

SUFFOLK, VIRGINIA 

with ample resources, invites your account 
and offers superior service and unexcelled 
facilities. Interest paid on savings accounts 



WHEN IN NEED OF 



PEANUTS 



WRITE TO THE 



United States & Smithfield 
Peanut Companies 



Wholesale Dealers and 
Cleaners, with Factories 
in Smithfield and Nor- 
folk, Va. q The finest 
grade of Hand-Picked 
Virginias, and lower 
grades. ^ No. 1 and 
No. 2 Virginia Shelled, 
and No. 1 and No. 2 
Spanish Shelled. ^ fl 



BLANCHED PEANUTS 
and PEANUT BUTTER 

WRITE FOR SAMPLES AND PRICES 
ADDRESS EITHER 

NORFOLK, VA. or SMITHFIELD, VA. 



^ • <",. c-^ 



















•^ 























/..../V"""- .f^ 




-^^* "*A'- ^^-/ -'A't %.** 






LlbkHkV a e6WfiRK§ 




003 556 689 2 



Sy. 



